Early menopause linked to glucose metabolism changes, not other CV risk factors

Key takeaways:

• Menopause at younger than 45 years vs. older was associated with lower diastolic blood pressure.
• Younger menopause age was linked to insulin and homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance level changes.

Early menopause may be associated with increased insulin resistance, but researchers found no effects on other cardiovascular risk factors, according to a cross-sectional and longitudinal study published in Menopause.

“Understanding whether age at natural menopause is associated with postmenopausal changes in CV risk factors, such as lipids, inflammatory biomarkers and glucose metabolism, might help understand factors that could accelerate cardiovascular aging in women,” Zayne Milena Roa-Díaz, PhD, from the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine and the Graduate School for Health Sciences at the University of Bern, Switzerland, and colleagues wrote. “Therefore, in this study, using data from a population-based cohort study in Lausanne, we aimed to determine whether early age at natural menopause is cross-sectionally and longitudinally associated with changes in CV risk factors, including total cholesterol, triglycerides, low- and high-density lipoprotein, apolipoprotein B, fasting glucose, insulin levels, homeostatic model assessment for insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), systolic and diastolic blood pressure and high-sensitivity C-reactive protein.”

Roa-Díaz and colleagues analyzed data from 981 postmenopausal women from the Swiss CoLaus study who reported age at natural menopause. All participants had measurements of CV risk factors — blood lipids, BP, glucose, HOMA-IR and inflammatory markers — at baseline between 2003 and 2006 and at first follow-up between 2009 and 2012.

The researchers assessed age at natural menopause as a continuous variable and as menopause at younger than 45 years (n = 99) and at 45 years and older (n = 882).

Women with age at natural menopause younger than 45 years had lower diastolic BP compared with women who started menopause at age 45 years and older (76 mm Hg vs. 79 mm Hg) in the cross-sectional analysis. In the longitudinal analysis with a median follow-up period of 5.6 years, age at natural menopause younger than 45 years was associated with increased log insulin (beta = 0.264) and log HOMA-IR (beta = 0.28) compared with women who started menopause at age 45 years and older.

Researchers observed no associations between age at natural menopause and other CV risk factors.

“Larger studies with validated menopause status and age at natural menopause are needed to replicate our findings and to explore further whether age at natural menopause has short- or long-term effects on CV risk factors,” the researchers wrote.